"Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist" by Roger LowensteinBrian Gongol

It's hard to tell whether this book is so engrossing because of its subject or because of the writing. It's probably a combination of the two. Even though Warren Buffett himself took little or no part in helping Lowenstein to research and write the book, one finishes it with an extremely strong sense of who Buffett is and how he came to be that way. Perhaps the most refreshing element of Buffett's character is his insistence that the act of creating tangible value for a customer is considerably more meritorious than shuffling numbers among columns in an accounting ledger and calling it "value." If more people would put down their celebrity gossip magazines and pick up this outstanding biography, we'd all be better-off.